http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/p...s-restrictionsOTTAWA — The federal Conservatives are considering sweeping recommendations from an influential government firearms advisory committee to loosen Canada’s gun control laws, the Star has learned.
The proposed changes would touch on many of the remaining restrictions on firearms and critics say would pose a risk to public safety.
The proposals include getting rid of the “prohibited” category of firearms and reclassifying weapons such as certain handguns and assault weapons as “restricted” only, and extending the duration of owner licences from five to 10 years — a move the RCMP warns would strip away an important safety check.
On the 23rd anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre of 14 women, one of its survivors is aghast at the ideas proposed by the committee and fearful of its influence and power in Ottawa.
“I am very sad. And I am mad,” said Nathalie Provost, who was wounded in Marc Lepine’s fusillade against female engineering students on Dec. 6, 1989. Parliament has declared the anniversary a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, and yet Provost fears any lessons learned have been forgotten.
“I have the feeling with all of this that we are losing more than just the long-gun registry, we are losing total control of guns in Canada,” Provost said in an interview from Montreal.
A summary of the recommendations as well as a record of a meeting where they were pitched to the government are among documents released to researchers for the Coalition for Gun Control under the access to information law and provided to the Star.
Co-chaired by Steve Torino of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee met with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and other senior government officials in Ottawa in late March, after the bill to kill the long-gun registry had cleared the Commons and was on the verge of Senate approval.
The 12 committee members also called for the removal of the requirement on gun owners to get an “authorization to transport” firearms, and for the creation of a committee to advise on the classification of imported firearms — but said it should be made up mostly of advisers from industry.
They recommended seized firearms — which by law must now be destroyed — be made legally available for public sale or trade. They suggested a “prohibited persons registry” could be set up to aid the tracking of those who should not be allowed to possess guns, but otherwise prohibited weapons should be reclassified.
Firearms licences should be valid for at least 10 years “or longer,” said the committee, and “if a licence expires, it should go into suspension until renewed, removing the criminalization of the firearm possessor.”
Toews’ office confirmed Wednesday that he is actively considering the recommendations, particularly a licence of longer duration.
“We always consider common sense solutions to ensure we have effective firearms laws that keep people safe, without needlessly burdening law abiding Canadians. We are looking at ways to ensure the licensing system is efficient and effective,” said Toews’ communications director Julie Carmichael. Her email reply did not directly address several other Star queries.
The RCMP refused the Star’s request for comment or technical information Wednesday, deferring to the department of public safety.
But the documents show the Mounties had real concerns in the spring.
Assistant Commissioner Pierre Perron, responsible for the Canadian Firearms Centre, was at the March meeting and warned extending the duration of licences to 10 years “would limit” the RCMP’s “ability to monitor, on a timely basis, any changes to an individual’s mental health status,” according to a written record of the discussion that Toews’ office prepared. That’s because when a licence is renewed, an individual must answer questions about mental health or changes in personal circumstances that could affect their fitness to own a weapon— and the form must be verified by another person.
The Conservative government — which has so far failed to respond to a request by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to put their representative on the advisory committee — has already acted on two of the committee’s other recommendations:
Earlier this fall, Toews eliminated certain gun show regulations the committee called useless, and just last week, cabinet quietly deferred to December 2013 a decision to require gun manufacturers to put new markings on weapons imported to Canada — a move that was intended to allow better tracking and to bring Canada into compliance with a UN effort to control international gun smuggling.
The proposed changes are “just chilling,” said Michael Bryant, former Ontario attorney-general who spoke on behalf of the Coalition for Gun Control. “And I think Canadians should be frightened by this.”
“The idea that you could get the equivalent of a lifetime licence to use a gun in Canada is not what the Conservatives ran on in the last election, and that the RCMP is concerned about changes to somebody’s mental health over that period of time is enough to keep the licensing requirements and not water it down.”
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